Microsoft says business clients helped shape Windows 7

Microsoft wants businesses to know that it took their views into account in building Windows 7, the next version of its operating system.

(It also wants to call attention to features for businesses in the new operating system that have been somewhat overlooked as bloggers heaped praise on the Windows 7 beta).

So, in a blog post this morning on the Windows 7 blog, Microsoft details how its research into the needs of businesses informed features in Windows 7. Read the post here.

How did Microsoft figure out what businesses wanted in a new operating system? The company, said Microsoft’s Stella Chernyak in an interview, established an advisory council of 30 Fortune 500 companies to get input while Windows 7 was still in the early stages, provided early builds of Windows 7 to enterprises to get feedback, and has also worked with companies to deploy the beta version of the operating system at their organizations. Microsoft also conducted a major study to gauge the views of IT professionals.

The conclusion of all this research, Chernyak said, was that PC users in an enterprise wanted to manage their own data, while IT professionals wanted to stay in control. She said the trend had only been exacerbated since the launch of Microsoft’s previous operating system, Vista, because back then PC users were less mobile.

One example, according to Chernyak: “People were not as concerned with losing their laptops” and the data on them.

Chernayk said Microsoft changed several features at the behest of businesses. For instance, she said, one feature in Windows 7 lets users choose to encrypt USB drives when they plug them into their PCs (A company’s IT department can also force encryption across an organization if it wants). Initially, Chernyak said, USB drives encrypted like that would have only been readable on computers running Windows 7. But Microsoft’s business partners wanted them to be readable on computers running XP and Vista, so Microsoft gave in.

Similarly, she said, Windows 7 Enterprise, unlike the enterprise version of Windows Vista, comes with Windows Media Center. Microsoft got feedback, though, from some customers that they wanted to be able to choose whether or not to put Windows Media Center on PCs running in their organizations. Again, Chernyak said, Microsoft acquiesced, so it will now be an optional feature.